LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Design Review Board Decision Was Not Taken Lightly

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The Hydration Room on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica has shades in the window. The Palisades DRB asked for a similar treatment in the space across from the Village Green, but was overruled by the City of Los Angeles.

(Resident Barbara Kohn served as the chief financial officer for No Oil, Inc. and Save the Coast Foundation, which ultimately blocked Occidental Petroleum from drilling for oil below Via de las Olas and offshore. She was a Community Council board member from 2000 to 2012 and served as a chair of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association for 12 years. Although she is now a member of the Design Review Board, this letter to Circling the News is written in her capacity as a long-time resident of Pacific Palisades.) 

Thank you so much for the clarity of your explanation about the IV Hydration Room project (December 22 “City Overrules the Palisades Design Review Board”). The DRB members were unanimous in their decision to deny the project, yet the city overturned their recommendations — apparently the city’s position is that an IV hydration treatment facility in a retail store location with clear windows across a narrow street from a public park with one sink in the one bathroom without separate janitorial facilities meets public health codes and is in the public interest. The DRB did not think it appropriate for many reasons, as explained in your article; yet the Community Council executive committee did not believe it met their standards and would not consider filing an appeal when asked.

This will be the first such facility within the borders of the City of Los Angeles and sets a precedent. The DRB did their job — the community will now have to endure the impacts of a business (the Hydration Room) that refuses to even cover its windows to shield the public from viewing individuals sitting with IV’s in their arms.

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